Cornelius Police officer suspended after interaction with woman aiding dog in hot car

CORNELIUS, N.C. – WCCB has learned a Cornelius Police officer was suspended without pay for how he spoke to a woman during a call for service. It happened in early June. The woman called 911 because she saw a dog in a hot car, and then she opened the door of that car to give the dog water.

In a video the woman recorded, she says, “So, just so all this is abundantly clear. This police officer is upset with me because I opened the door in 90 degree heat to a dog water that was locked in the car.”

She walks up to the officer while recording with her cell phone and he says, “That’s fine, you’re being videod (sic) as well. So, what right do you think you have to open someone’s door?”

She replies, “I already told you, I don’t think that I have a right, but all I said was that if there’s a dog, on a 90 degree day, locked in the car panting, I’m gonna give it water.”

The officer says, “You have no right to do that.”

She says, “You’ve already told me that.”

He says, “I don’t understand what you don’t understand about this?”

She says, “No, I already said I don’t have a right. But you just want to keep arguing with me about it.”

He replies, “I do. Because I have a lot of education in this.”

The Cornelius Police Department says the way the call was handled was “not consistent with the way our officers treat the public.” The officer was also suspended from his duties as an active K9 handler. The dog was okay. The woman was not charged.